Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Did you make facial cleanser? What did you think? (part three)

In this post, Additions to the base recipe, Cath said: I made the cleanser for dry skin as per the percentages advised but with surfactants available in Australia (maybe my research skills are poor but I simply could not locate exactly what was named on the list). The basic recipe was a nice viscosity after adding thickener. Application was enjoyable with a perfect amount of foamy lather, no eye irritation on removal of eye makeup and washed off easily. After my face had dried, I felt my skin would benefit from moisturising as it felt a tad dry. Version 2 of this recipe was to increase Glycerine to 10% and add Aloe Vera Gel at 5%. This recipe felt different on application in that the product felt like it had "body" even though the viscosity appeared only slightly thicker than Version 1. Once again there was no eye irritation and the product washed off very well. My skin felt soft and slightly more hydrated. I have been oil cleansing for some time which may cloud my feelings on this cleanser somewhat. I will attempt a Version 3 with the addition of Polyquat 7 to see if I can detect any difference.

Gah, you're all running ahead, ruining the surprise for Tuesday! Just kidding! I'm glad to see you're trying new things with the recipes to see what works for you. Reading stuff on a page is a good thing, but trying these things at home to see what you think is most important!

What you've done with the glycerin and aloe vera gel increases the mildness of the product, and increase the hydration it can offer. I'll be going into greater detail on Tuesday about this topic, but this is a great change to the recipe, which you've demonstrated by having your skin feel more hydrated!

Cath, I'd love to know what surfactants you used! Do you mind sharing? I want to get a range of recipes for this cleanser that everyone can try! And did you try the polyquat 7?

And in this post, Did you make a facial cleanser (part one)? Anna said: Thank you for a great tutorial and all the inspiration you give in your blog! I made a facial cleanser for oily skin but since I don't have some of the suggested ingredients, I've had to improvise! In my experience, it's been difficult to find ingredients that aren't possible to market as "natural" in Sweden and Europe. I can't get Crothix and the substitute I got (EasyMix Silk) only made clumps and did not thicken well. So I formulated my cleanser to go in a foamer bottle. I'm also envious of the person who only has small foamer bottles because I can only find large ones that look ridiculous with the tiny amounts of product I make! The surfactants I have to play with are cocamidopropyl betaine, decyl glucoside, plantapon LGC, powdered DLS, sodium C14/C16 olefin sulphonate, and SCI. I've made three different facial cleansers. All of them contained 77.5% water, 15% surfactants, 3% polyquat 7, 2% hydrolyzed oat protein, 2 % panthenol, and 0.5% Liquid Germall plus. In the first I tried to combine 5% cocamidopropyl betaine with 10% SCI but the SCI precipitated on the second day and clogged the foaming mechanism. Before that it was lovely! In the second version I combined 5% cocamidopropyl betaine with 5% decyl glucoside and 5% sodium c14/C16 olefin sulphonate and adjusted the pH (because I have a pH-meter!). This version was nice although maybe not as cleansing as I need it to be. The third version included 5% cocamidopropyl betaine, 2.5% decyl glucoside, 2.5% SCI, and 5% sodium c14/C16 olefin sulphonate. I still had to adjust the pH with this small proportion of decyl glucoside. This is my favourite version so far! It's a bit creamier than the second version thanks to the SCI, and a litte bit more cleansing. I still have a little problem with skin tightness after washing even though I included moisturizing ingredients. But I love using it and knowing that I made it myself!

Wow, great changes, Anna! This last combination sounds amazing! We'll be talking about moisturizing ingredients this Tuesday, but I encourage you to check out last week's post on using humectants, like glycerin, and cationic polymers, like polyquat 7 or honeyquat. These can go quite a long way for hydrating and conditioning your skin!

So what can you do if you don't have the surfactants I use in this series? Improvise! Check out this section about surfactants, or look at the comparison chart (scroll to the bottom after clicking). There are so many lovely surfactants with which you can play; I've chosen the most common and easily available ones to me in North America but there are so many nice ones!

I'll be collecting information on the surfactants you're using so I can make some suggestions for how to use them in future products, so please let me know if you're making these changes!

If you'd like to play along with this facial products series to make cleanser, please check out these posts!
If you'd like to play along at home, check out these posts for this facial cleanser series!

3 comments:

Hi Susan,In answer to your response, Version 3, where I included Polyquat 7 at 3%, has been completed but I found no discernible difference between it and Version 2 (glycerine 10% & Aloe Vera Gel 5%). I am listing my substitutions and suppliers below.

I have now located and ordered Crothix Pastilles & SLeS from www.ebotaniq.com.au However, the freight charge was gobsmackingly outrageous. I am interested to evaluate potential differences, hence the orderRegards Kath

Sounds awsome! As you can see, I did include 3% polyquat 7 and 2% hydrolyzed oat protein, but I'll definitely try to include glycerin as well when I get a chance because it seems people really like this. I'll keep you posted! It's also really great to see what others have done so thanks for sharing!

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Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?